Systems and methods for flexible and extensible contact center routing

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods for flexible and extensible contact center routing are disclosed. Incoming communications are received at a contact center from one or more customers. A pairing score is determined for each agent capable of servicing the incoming communications for each of the one or more customers based on customer attributes and/or agent attributes that are adjustable and extensible. An incoming communication is routed from a customer to an agent having a highest pairing score with the customer. The incoming communication can be routed on a first communication channel and then switched over to a second communication channel. The first communication channel and second communication channel can be different types of communication channels.

FIELD

Embodiments and examples of the present invention relate to contactcenters and data processing and methods for contact center routing. Moreparticularly, embodiments of the present invention relate to systems andmethods for flexible and extensible contact center routing.

BACKGROUND

Today, entities or companies provide customer service using a contactcenter. For instance, a customer can contact in to a contact center thatroutes the contact to an available agent for servicing the customer. Aconventional contact center can use skill-based routing to routecontacts from a customer based on the skills of the agent. For example,a customer may indicate a need to cancel a credit card that was stolen,and be placed in a queue serviced by an agent experienced with cancelingcredit cards. Typically, the agent services the customers in order fromthe queue. This type of routing is rigid and can be problematic forspecific scenarios. For example, a customer having a credit card thatwas stolen and is currently being used by an unauthorized person. Thecustomer having a stolen credit card should be serviced immediately byan agent in contrast to a customer who may have simply misplaced acredit card and there have not been any unauthorized purchases over along period of time. In this situation, the contact center should beflexible to route customer contacts having a high priority for serviceby agents accordingly.

Furthermore, contact centers provide service to customers on multiplecommunication channels, e.g., telephone contacts, emails, text messages,short message service (SMS) messages, social media etc. Contact centersshould also be flexible to adjust the routing of different contacts onmultiple communication channels to appropriate agents based on anynumber of reasons to improve customer service. For example, a customermay have used SMS messaging to start a communication with a contactcenter, but realizes that sending texts is cumbersome and speaking withan agent directly would be more effective.

Contact centers may also assign work to their agents, which may not bebased on inbound communications from a customer. Some of these tasks maybe of higher importance than working on inbound communications, andshould be routed accordingly. For instance, in the example of the creditcard support, an agent may create a task to check one day after the callthat a fraudulent charge was removed. A day later an agent would berouted the work to reach out to the customer without an inbound callbecause this work could be more important or time-sensitive than aninbound message or communication from another customer who misplacedtheir card. Such routing flexibility is needed to improve customerservice over multiple communication channels with agents.

SUMMARY

Systems and methods are disclosed for flexible and extensible contactcenter routing. The disclosed routing techniques provide built-inflexibility and extensibility to address different situations andscenarios to match customers to the right agent while providing seamlessrouting over multiple channels in order to improve customer service. Forone embodiment, at a contact center, incoming contacts are received fromone or more customers. A pairing score is determined for each agentcapable of servicing the incoming contacts with each of the one or morecustomers based on customer attributes and/or agent attributes that areadjustable and extensible. An incoming contact is routed from a customerto an agent based on a highest pairing score for the customer.Determining the pairing score can also be based on more guidelines,criteria, or Boolean representation that are adjustable, flexible andextensible.

For one embodiment, the customer attributes and/or agent attributes,guidelines, criteria, or Boolean representation are adjusted. A newpairing score can be determined for each agent capable of servicing theincoming contacts with each of the one or more customers based on theadjusted customer attributes and/or adjusted, guidelines, criteria, orBoolean representation. For one embodiment, the incoming contacts arerouted on one or more communication channels including a short messageservice (SMS) message channel, text message channel, telephone contactchannel, cell phone channel, email channel, social media channel,messenger channel, voicemail channel, phone callback channel, faxchannel, or chat channel. For one embodiment, the routed incomingcontact can be switched over from a first communication channel to asecond communication channel. The second communication channel can be adifferent type of channel from the first communication channel.

Other methods, systems, and computer readable-mediums are described.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The appended drawings illustrate examples and embodiments and are,therefore, exemplary and not considered to be limiting in scope.

FIG. 1A illustrates one embodiment of a flexible and extensible contactcenter environment.

FIG. 1B illustrates one embodiment of communication channels for routinga customer to a selected agent in the contact center environment of FIG.1A.

FIG. 2A illustrates one embodiment of a routing database table matchingagents to customers based on a highest scoring pair.

FIG. 2B illustrates one embodiment of a routing database table showingattributes for agents.

FIG. 2C illustrates one embodiment of a routing database table showingattributes for customers.

FIG. 2D illustrates one embodiment of a routing database table showingscoring based on customer and agent attributes of FIG. 2C.

FIG. 2E illustrates one embodiment of a routing database table showing alist of criteria to match agents with customers along with relativeimportance of those criteria to scoring.

FIG. 2F illustrates one embodiment of a routing database table showing ascenario of evaluating an agent and customer according to the criteriaof FIG. 2E.

FIGS. 3A-3C illustrates one embodiment of a contact center routingecosystem and data flow.

FIGS. 4A-4B illustrates one embodiment of screen shots of anadministration interfaces for setting up communications with customerson multiple communication channels.

FIG. 5 illustrates one embodiment of a screen shot of exemplary rules orcriteria for matching customers to agents.

FIG. 6 illustrates another embodiment of a screen shot of an agentinterface for helping customers after a rules or criteria match.

FIG. 7 illustrates one embodiment of a block diagram of data processingsystem or computing system architecture to implement the enhancedcontact routing between customers and agents.

FIG. 8 illustrates one embodiment of a flow diagram of an operation forrouting contacts at a contact center.

FIG. 9 illustrates another embodiment of a flow diagram of an operationfor routing contacts at a contact center.

FIG. 10 illustrates one embodiment of a flow diagram of an operation forchanging communication channels.

FIG. 11 illustrates one embodiment of an administration interface forproviding mapping rules and scoring criteria.

FIG. 12 illustrates one embodiment of an administration interface forproviding scoring criteria for an exemplary account.

FIG. 13 illustrates one embodiment of an interface for an agent to helpcustomers across multiple channels.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Systems and methods are disclosed for flexible and extensible contactcenter routing. For one embodiment, a contact center uses customerattributes and/or agent attributes that are adjustable and extensiblefor determining a scoring pair between an agent with each customer. Forother embodiments, in addition to customer and agent attributes, one ormore guidelines, criteria, or Boolean representation can be used fordetermining a scoring pair, which are also adjustable and extensible.For example, if customer 1 speaks Spanish and agent 1 speaks Spanish andpreviously serviced customer 1, then agent 1 would be given a higherpairing score over other agents who may not speak Spanish and may nothave helped customer 1 before. The customer and agent attributes,guidelines, criteria or Boolean representation can be adjusted orextended according to the requirements of the contact center (e.g., acontact center may place higher priority for repeat customers overnon-repeat customers waiting a longer time to be serviced by an agent).In this way, the scoring pair between agents and customers is simple andcan prioritize a situation relative to the requirements on how thecontact center is to operate.

For one embodiment, incoming contacts are routed on any number ofcommunication channels between customers and agents. Examples ofcommunication channels include a short message service (SMS) messagechannel, text message channel, telephone contact channel, cell phonechannel, email channel, social media channel, messenger channel,voicemail channel, phone callback channel, fax channel, or chat channel.Routing of contacts on these communications channels can be flexiblesuch that a contact center can switch from one communication channel toa different communication channel. For example, a customer may havestarted a contact using SMS messaging, but now desires to speak with anagent directly. The techniques disclosed herein allow the contact centerto switch over from one communication channel to a differentcommunication channel—e.g., switching between a SMS communicationchannel to a telephone communication channel. By doing so, thetechniques enable a seamless transition of communication for thecustomer-agent pair when switching communication channels. Accordingly,the disclosed flexible and extensible routing techniques improve on therigidness of conventional contact centers to meet customer needs whichcan be continuously changing.

For purposes herein, channels can refer to any means of communicationthat can be used to provide service and communication between a companyand a consumer or customer. Channels can include, but are not limitedto, using a kiosk, one or more phone calls, one or more video calls,video conferencing, communication applications that include callingfunctionality such as, for example, FaceTime, WhatsApp, Skype,communication applications that operate like Google Hangouts, real-timehologram, web chat, mobile application chat, text, SMS, and MMScommunications functionality, semaphore, telegram, email, voice mail,fax, radio, WhatsApp, WeChat, Facebook Messenger, Twitter, Instagram,Apple Business Chat, LinkedIn messaging, and many other social mediacommunication channels.

Agents, or Service Representatives, or Advisors, or any other title, canrefer to any user of the system that would use a tool to provide serviceto consumers or customers. These agents can be interfacing with theconsumers or customers, or they can be completing work that does notrequire them to interface with consumers or customers. Agents canbenefit from this routing system whether they access their work througha user interface of the system described herein, or whether they accesstheir work in an external system that is connected to the systemdescribed herein through API or other means or remote access andcontrol.

Administrators, or Admins, can refer to any user of the system, whetheraccessing the tool through a user interface or API or other remoteaccess and control method, who has sufficient levels of permission tomonitor and edit the settings that extend and adjust the routing system.

As set forth herein, various embodiments, examples and aspects will bedescribed with reference to details discussed below, and theaccompanying drawings will illustrate various embodiments and examples.The following description and drawings are illustrative and are not tobe construed as limiting. Numerous specific details are described toprovide a thorough understanding of various embodiments and examples.However, in certain instances, well-known or conventional details arenot described in order to provide a concise discussion of the disclosedembodiments and examples.

Flexible and Extensible Contact Center Routing Environment

FIG. 1A illustrates one embodiment of a flexible and extensible contactcenter environment 100. Contact center environment 100 includes acontact center data processing system 102 receiving incoming contactsfrom customers 1 to N (105-107) and routing the incoming contacts toagents 1 to M (108-110) for service. N and M can represent any number ofcustomers and agents. For one embodiment, contact center data processingsystem 102 can include a computing architecture, as shown, e.g., in FIG.8, having components to implement core routing module 103 and routingdatabase 104. For one embodiment, core routing module 103 can be acombination of hardware and/or software to implement programs or programmodules that perform one or more functions or operations including thedisclosed flexible and extensible contact routing techniques. For oneembodiment, database 104 can be any type of database including arelational database management system (RDMS).

For one embodiment, routing database 104 stores attributes for customers1 to N, agents 1 to M, and Boolean representations used to determine orgenerate scores or priorities on how agents 1 to M are assigned toservice customers 1 to M. For example, routing database 104 can storetables as shown, e.g., in FIGS. 2A-2F, describing attributes forcustomers and agents, guidelines, criteria, and Boolean representationsused to determine and generate scoring pairs between agents and pair ordetermine priorities for servicing customers. The routing database 104tables can be adjusted or programmed allowing for contact routing to beflexible and extensible for the changing needs of customers. For otherembodiments, routing database 104 can store any number of guidelines,criteria or Boolean representations to further assist how to determinescoring pairs or set priorities for certain customers, which override ahigh pair score with respect to certain customers. For one embodiment,core routing module 103 can use one or more tables stored in database104 and/or guidelines, criteria or Boolean representations to routeincoming contacts from customer 1 to N to one of the agents 1 to M basedon a pairing score or a priority. For example, each of the agents 1 to Ncan have a pairing score associated with each of the customers 1 to N,and the highest pairing score between an agent with the customers can beused to connect that agent related to a highest pairing score with acustomer. For other embodiments, an override condition can exist to givepriority to a particular customer regardless of a highest pairing score,e.g., a special status customer or customer in an emergency situation.

FIG. 1B illustrates one embodiment of communication channels 113 to 117for routing a customer 111 to a selected agent 112 in the contact centerenvironment 100 of FIG. 1A. For this example, communication channel 113can represent a short message service (SMS) or text channel,communication channel 114 can represent an email channel, communicationchannel 115 can represent a telephone or cell channel, communicationchannel 116 can represent a social media channel, and communicationchannel 117 can represent other communication channels. For oneembodiment, core routing module 103 can initially route customer 111 toselected agent 112 on a SMS/Text channel 113 represented by “A.” Duringthe service session with selected agent 112, the enhanced core routingmodule 103 can change the communication channel to telephone contactchannel 115 represented by “B.” For example, customer 111 may havestarted communicating with selected agent 112 on channel A in whichdetails were cumbersome to type in on a keypad and texted selected agent112 that he wanted to speak personally over the phone. In this case,when customer 111 contacts the contact center, core routing module 103can be configured to know that selected agent 112 was engaged withsession on a SMS/text communication channel 113 and route the contact ontelephone/cell communication channel 115 directly to selected agent 112.In this way, customer service can be improved by allowing for seamlesstransition between communication channels at a contact center.

Agent and Customer Attributes and Scoring Pair Examples

FIG. 2A illustrates one embodiment of a routing database table 200matching agents 201 to a customer 202 based on a highest scoring pair.Database table 200 can be stored in routing database 104. Referring toFIG. 2A, database table 200 includes a list of agents 201 identified as“1” through “5.” Although five agents are listed, database table 200 caninclude any number of agents. For this example, each of the agents 1through 5 is associated with a scoring pair 203 regarding customer“3”—i.e., scoring pairs of 14, 14, 12, 16 and 14 for agents 1 to 5,respectively. Based on the scoring pair, agent 4 has the highest scoringpair of “16” with respect to customer 3. As a result, in this example,core routing module 103 can route an incoming contact from customer 3 toagent 4 having the highest scoring pair 16 based on database table 200.Each pairing score 203 can be based on customer 202 attributes, agent201 attributes, guidelines, criteria or Boolean representations. Forexample, customer 3 may have an attribute of speaking Spanish, and agent4 may also have an attribute of speaking Spanish and having servicedcustomer 3 previously which allows agent 4 to have the highest scoringpair. The attributes for agents 201 and customer 202, guidelines,criteria or Boolean representation can be adjustable and extensible,which can be used by core routing module 103 to update or modify routingof incoming contacts from customer 3 to any of the agents 1 through 5 ascontact center circumstances change or evolve. In other examples, therewill be any number of customers and a respective scoring pair for eachof the agents, e.g., agents 1-5. For example, there may be customers1-20 having a scoring pair with each of the agents 1-5. This would allowthe contact center to optimize for the best possible pairings across arange of customers and agents.

FIG. 2B illustrates one embodiment of a routing database table 205showing attributes 207-209 for agents 206. Referring to FIG. 2B, agents206 are identified as 1 to 5 having names Salvatore, Gina, Terry,Jean-Michel, and Ling. The previously contacted customer 207 attributesrefer to customers serviced previously by Salvatore, Gina, Terry,Jean-Michel and Ling. In this example of attributes, Salvatore, Terryand Ling had “None,” while Gina previously contacted customer 3, andJean-Michael previously contacted customers 3 and 5. For languages(s)208 attributes, Terry, Jean-Michel and Ling speak English only, andSalvatore speaks Spanish only, and Gina speaks both English and Spanish.And, for expertise 209 attributes, Salvatore, Jean-Michel and Ling haveexpertise in Products and Gina and Terry have expertise in Billing.These attributes can be used to determine scoring pairs or prioritiesusing any number of guidelines, criteria or Boolean representations. Forexample, for an incoming contact by customer 3 who speaks Spanish andneeds expertise in Billing, based on the attributes for agents 206, Ginawould have positive results because she previously serviced thiscustomer, speaks Spanish and has expertise. Accordingly, for customer 3,Gina can have the highest pairing score among the other agents, whichcan be used by core routing module 103 to route an incoming contact fromcustomer 3 to Gina.

FIG. 2C illustrates one embodiment of a routing database table 210showing attributes 212-218 for customers 211. In this example, there arefive customers (1 to 5) having names Ingrid, Maria, Jose, Jeanette andAntoine. Attributes associated with customers 1 to 5 are channel 213,minutes waiting 214, status 215, languages 216, snowstorm 217, and issuearea 218. The channel 218 attributes show that text, SMS, email, phoneand phone channels are used by customers 1 to 5 for an incoming contactto contact center environment 100. The minutes waiting 214 attributeshows waiting times of 0.5, 7, 10, 15 and 4 minutes for customers 1 to5. The status 215 attributes show status of premium, none, none, basicand none for customers 1 to 5. The languages 216 attributes showEnglish, Spanish, English and Spanish, Spanish and English for customers1 to 5. Snowstorm 217 attributes show no, no, yes, no and no forcustomers 1 to 5. And the issue area 218 attributes show billing,billing, products, billing and unknown for customers 1 to 5.

For one embodiment, a guideline, criteria or Boolean representations canbe used for any one or combination of attributes 213 to 218 to determinea pairing score. For example, a guideline, criteria or Booleanrepresentation can be if the status 215 attribute for a customer is“Premium,” then that customer (i.e., customer 1, Ingrid) should berouted first regardless of wait times of the other customers and thusprovide a high score. In this example, Ingrid has the shortest wait timeof 0.5 minutes while Jose has waited for 10 minutes. For this contactcenter, status of customer may give priority over non-premium customersto premium customers. Alternatively, a contact center can make long waittimes as having higher priority over short wait times regardless of thestatus of customer. In other examples, if a customer is in an emergencysituation, e.g., snowstorm 217 attribute is Yes (e.g., Jose is impactedby a snowstorm), that customer may be given a higher scoring pair orpriority over other customers. Any number of guidelines, criteria orBoolean representations can be used using any number of customerattributes 213 to 218 to determine a scoring pair or to give priority tocertain customers regardless of scoring pair.

FIG. 2D illustrates one embodiment of a routing database table 220showing scoring pairs based on customer and agent attributes of FIGS.2B-2C. For one embodiment, core routing module 103 can process thecustomer and agent attributes to determine matches along any number ofguidelines, criteria or Boolean representations to calculate a scoringpair of 14 between Salvatore and Jose. In this example, agent Salvatorewhose attributes 221 include Agent ID as 1, previously contactedcustomer ID(s) as None, Language(s) as Spanish, and Expertise asProducts. In this example, the matched customer is Jose whose attributes222 include Customer ID as 3, Channel as Email, Minutes waiting as 10,Status as None, Language(s) as English and Spanish, Snowstorm Impact asYes and Extreme, and Issue area as Products.

For one embodiment, core routing module 103 can calculate or generatepairing scores for all customers 223 such that Ingrid, Maria, Jose,Jeannette and Antoine receive scores of 2, 3, 14, 7 and 1, respectively,with respect to Salvatore as the agent. These pairing scores can bebased on any of the customer or agent attributes and any combination ofguidelines, criteria or Boolean representations. For example, for thehigh score calculation 224 of 14 for Jose, the matched attributes forSalvatore as an agent and Jose as a customer included Snowstorm Impactwith a sub-score of 10, Same Language with a sub-score of 2, and SubjectMatter Expertise with a sub-score of 2 which totaled 14. For thiscontact center, Snowstorm Impact was given a high priority of 10. Forexample, the contact center could be for winter equipment products and,if snowstorm impact was observed, the contact center would give thecustomer impacted by a snow storm a higher priority and score because ithas been also identified as “extreme.” For one embodiment, thecommunication channel of Email by Jose could be switched over totelephone or SMS text such that agent Salvatore can provide a moreimmediate response to meet the needs of the customer—i.e., Jose.

FIG. 2E illustrates one embodiment of a routing database table 225showing a list of criteria and Boolean representations to match agentswith customers. Referring to FIG. 2E, the criteria ID 226 include 1 to 7referring to Names Previous Contact, Premium Status, Snowstorm Impact,Some Wait, Long Wait, Same Language and Subject Matter Expertise. Thetable 225 shows how the criteria are satisfied based on Booleanrepresentations or operations and if certain attributes are indicated orpresent. For one embodiment, core routing logic 103 can determine ifeach incoming contact from a customer meets the seven criteria andBoolean representations to determine scoring pairs for matchingcustomers to an agent.

In this example, for the Previous Contact criteria (1) to be met, theagent's previous customer ID attributes include the same customer IDrelated to an incoming contact. The importance criteria can be indicatedas Medium. If, for example, there is a tied pairing score for allcustomers, any type of tie-breaking mechanism can be used, such as thecustomer having the longest wait time, to match the customer to theagent. For Premium Status criteria (2) to be met, customer status equalsPremium. The importance of this criteria can be indicated as Low. ForSnowstorm Impact criteria (3) to be met, snowstorm impact indication forthe customer equals Yes. The importance of this criteria can beindicated as Extreme. For the Some Wait criteria (4) to be met, customerwait time is greater or equal to 4 minutes AND customer wait time isless than 11 minutes. The importance of this criteria can be indicatedas Low. For the Long Wait criteria (5) to be met, the customer wait timemust be greater or equal to 11 minutes. The importance of this criteriacan be indicated as High. The importance levels can assist indetermining pairing scores or weighting scores.

For the Same Language criteria (6) to be met, the customer AND agentlanguage equals English OR customer AND agent language equals Spanish.The importance of this criteria can be indicated as Medium. For theSubject Matter Expertise criteria (7) to be met, the customer issue areaAND agent area of expertise equals Billing or customer issue area ANDagent area of expertise equals Products OR customer issue area AND agentarea of expertise equals Tech/Website. In the above examples, the numberof criteria is extensible in which additional criteria can be added. Theattributes and Boolean representations can also be adjusted, modified orextended. For one embodiment, if importance to routing is Extreme, theweighting or scoring can be increased. In this example, if a customerhad Previous Contact, Premium Status, Long Wait, Same Language, andSubject Matter Expertise points, the customer could be matched or pairedwith an agent ahead of another customer who only has the SnowstormImpact, but no other points. In other examples, an override conditioncan be determined on specific Boolean conditions that can place certaincustomers and agents ahead of a main group.

FIG. 2F illustrates one embodiment of a routing database table 240showing a scenario of evaluating an agent and customer pair 241according to the criteria of FIG. 2E. For this example, the pair toevaluate 241 includes agent 1 and customer 3 based on attributes andcriteria of FIGS. 2B-2E. Referring to FIG. 2F, for the seven criteria ofFIG. 2E, in criteria T/F field 243, criteria 3 (Snowstorm Impact), 6(Same Language) and 7 (Subject Matter Expertise) were met and identifiedas TRUE. The other criteria were not met and identified as FALSE. Thescore for criteria 3 is 10 and criteria 6 and 7 the score was 2 suchthat the total score for the agent-customer pair is 14. For this pair,the agent Salvatore received a total score of 14 with customer 3. In thetemporary data store 242, attributes for the agent (Salvatore) includepreviously contacted customer ID (None), Language (Spanish) andExpertise (Products). And attributes for the customer (Jose) includechannel (Email), minutes waiting (10 minutes), Status (None) Language(s)(English and Spanish), Snowstorm Impact (Yes) and Issue Area (Products).Table 240 can be stored in routing database 104 in which scenarios forall the agents and customers can be saved for data analysis. As can beseen from the above examples, the customer attributes, agent attributes,guidelines, criteria and Boolean expressions and parameters are flexiblesuch that they can be adjusted and extensible.

Exemplary Contact Center Routing Ecosystem

FIGS. 3A-3C illustrates embodiments of a contact center routingecosystem 300 and data flow. Referring to FIG. 3A, data is collected(identified as known data 337) at a contact center and external to acontact center, which can be stored in a routing database, e.g., routingdatabase 104, used for routing incoming contacts and task work. Forexample, the ecosystem 300 can take both inbound communications orcontacts and route other types of work, e.g., such as calling a customerback or following up with an internal team to help or assist a customerissue. For one embodiment, multiple data sources within a contact centerecosystem 300 can supply information to known data 337 such as agents302, inbound customers 314, inbound tasks 323 and reminders 327. Theseare just examples of data sources and other data sources can be used tosupply information for known data 337 used for contact routing.

For one embodiment, agents 302 can supply multiple types of informationincluding information related to availability 304, channel support 304,attributes 308, working pools 310 and teams(s) 312. For example,information related to availability 304 can indicate which agents areavailable or have capacity to service incoming communications.Information related to channel support 306 can indicate which channelsagents are working on, e.g., email, telephone, SMS/Text channels, etc.Information related to attributes 308 can indicate attributes such aslanguages (e.g., Spanish), area of expertise (e.g., Products) and etc.related to agents 302. Information related to working pools 310 canindicate pools in which agents 302 work in such as different departmentswithin an enterprise or company. Information related to team(s) 313 canindicate which agents 302 work on which teams, e.g., Western RegionalTeam, Operations Team, etc.

For one embodiment, inbound customers 314 can supply multiple types ofinformation to known data 337 including information related toattributes 316, current interaction 318, message content 320, currentchannel 321 and history 322. For example, information related toattributes can indicate attributes of customers 314 such as language(e.g., Spanish), premium customer and etc. Information related tocurrent interaction 318 can include a current interaction with thecontact center, e.g., related to Billing, how long the customer has beenwaiting and etc. Information related to message content 320 can includewhat language the communication is in, whether the content has anegative sentiment or etc. Information related to current channel 321can indicate which channel the customer is being serviced on, e.g., SMSchannel, and what channels are available to service the customer.Information related to history 322 can include how many times a customerhas contacted the enterprise or company recently, and how satisfied theywere with previous interactions, and etc.

For one embodiment, inbound tasks 323 can supply multiple types ofinformation to known data 337 including information related to urgency324, team 325 and attributes 326. Information related to urgency canplace a priority on an inbound task related to customers 314 and agents302. Information related to team 325 can indicate the agents in a teamwho should service the input tasks 323. Information related toattributes 326 can include what type of task needs to be completed,e.g., Redress fraudulent transaction.

For one embodiment, reminders 327 can supply multiple types ofinformation to known data 337 including information related to assignedtasks 328, which includes information related to urgency 329 andassignee 330, and information related to unread reminders 331 andabandoned contacts 332. Information related to assigned tasks 328 canindicate if a task is urgent or non-urgent or have other prioritiesusing information related to urgency 329 and information related toassignee can indicate which agent or agents is assigned to a task.Information related to unread 331 indicates if an inbound message hasbeen read or reviewed by any of agents 302. Information related toabandoned contacts 332 can indicate which contacts were abandoned and areason for a contact being abandoned, e.g., customer dropped contact, sothat agents can determine how to best reengage with customers, etc.

For one embodiment, known data 337 is coupled to data update sources333. Known data can update data from data update sources 333 or storesome or all of the information in known data 337 as a cache. For otherembodiments, data update sources 333 can supply multiple types ofinformation to known data 337 including information related to externaldata 334, changing data 335 and new inbound x-channel 336(cross-channel) used for modifying or updating information in known data337. Information related to external data 334 can include updatingcustomer attributes 316 from an external data source, e.g., refreshingthe customer's latest banking transaction history. Information relatedto changing data 335 can be any type of data that is changing as theinteraction unfolds, e.g., the time that a customer is waiting 318 orthe channels 306 that an agent is available to service. Informationrelated to new inbound x-channel 336 can indicate if customer or agentinitiates additional communication over a new channel, e.g., when aninbound customer 314 reaches out by phone to start and then also reachesout on social media channels.

For one embodiment, core routing module 103 can implement criteriaassessed 338 using known data 337 to route contacts at a contact center.Criteria assessed 338 can include Boolean representations or statementsusing attributes 308 for agents 302 and attributes 317 for inboundcustomers 314 or other information and guidelines from known data 337.Criteria assessed 338 can also determine scores for matching agents 302to inbound customers 314. For other embodiments, criteria assessed 338can provide guidelines to choose pools of agents 302 to service inboundcustomers 314, provide overrides or restrictions while matching agents302 to customers 314, provide auto-reply rules, apply topics to theinteraction, or trigger other rules for any issue matching agents 302 toinbound customers 314. Outputs and information from criteria assessed338 are forwarded to core routing 343 and parallel actions 348 as shownin FIG. 3B.

FIG. 3B is a continuation of the contact center ecosystem 300 shown inFIG. 3A. Referring to FIG. 3B, core routing 343 receives or usesinformation from criteria assessed 338, which includes functions relatedto pool 344, overrides and restrictions 345, matching 346 and reversematching 347. Functions related to pool 344 perform tasks in distinctparts at a contact center or distinct parts of an organization such asregion, brands, product types etc. Functions related to overrides andrestrictions 345 can override matches between customers to a particularavailable agent or place restrictions on agents to which types ofcustomers to service. For one embodiment, overrides and restrictions 345can be prioritized for a small pool of customers, e.g., Premium. For oneembodiment, overrides and restrictions 345 can limit the pool ofcustomers who an available agent can match with, e.g., negative commentsregarding the available agent, by one or more customers in the pool.

For one embodiment, functions related to matching 346 can implement afirst-to-respond approach. For example, when an agent becomes available,matching 346 can assess possible matches based on attributes, Booleanrepresentations, scores, criteria, guidelines, rules and prioritiesusing techniques disclosed herein in order to match a customer with thebest available agent. Reverse matching 347 can perform functions in thecase when there are more agents than incoming tasks or contacts (e.g.,conversations, tasks etc.). For example, when a customer contacts thecontact center, reverse matching 347 can assess each possible agentmatch and pair the customer with the best agent.

For one embodiment, actions 348 can be performed at a contact centerthat receives information from criteria assessed 338 shown in FIG. 3A.In one embodiment, actions 348 can include functions such as auto-apply349, auto-reply 350 or other 351. Auto-apply 349 can apply topics to theinteraction for reporting purposes. Auto-reply 350 can provideauto-reply messages if there are no available agents via thecommunication channel used by the customer, e.g., email, SMS/textmessaging, chat etc. Other functions 351 can include future actions thatwould be triggered from criteria assessed 338.

For one embodiment, self-serve work 339 can be performed along with corerouting 343 and parallel actions 348. Self-serve work 339 can beimplemented by agents directed to functions related to personal inbox340, team inbox 341 and search 342. For example, customer contacts maybe directed to a personal inbox 340 of an agent or a team inbox 341 inwhich messages can be addressed and communicated within personal inbox340 and team inbox 341. An agent can also implement a search 342 such assearching data on a particular customer or recent messages from acustomer etc. Conversation task customer 352, as shown in FIG. 3C,receive inputs from core routing 343 and self-serve work 393.

FIG. 3C is a continuation of the contact center ecosystem 300 shown inFIGS. 3A-3B. Referring to FIG. 3C, conversation-task-customer 352operation assigns or pairs customers or tasks to agents. For example, aconversation for an incoming customer is assigned to an agent based onoperations from core routing 342 and/or self-serve work 339. Agentparticipation 353 interacts with conversation task customer 352 whichincludes assignee 354, contributor 355, watcher 356 and other functionsduring the conversation with a customer. Regarding the conversation witha customer, conversation task customer 352 can then lead to operationssuch as conclusion 359 operations, follow-up 365 operations, transfer370 operations, and disruptions 377 operations.

For one embodiment, conclusion operations 358 includes functions such asclose conversation 359, end chat session 360, session timeout 361, marktask complete 362, decline 363 and after-conversation time 364. Otherfunctions can be implemented and the above examples are not limiting.For one embodiment, follow-up operation 365 includes functions such astask creation 366, note 367, topic(s) 368, and other 369, which can beimplemented by an agent for follow-up actions. For one embodiment,transfers 370 operations include functions such as warm transfer 371,cold transfer 372, reassign to inbox 373, reassign agent 374, automatedre-routing 375 and escalations 376, which can be implemented by one ormore agents or system functions. For one embodiment, disruptions 377operations include functions to provide indications to a customer suchas agent away 378, agent offline 379, technical problems 380, crosschannel (x-channel) or communication channel decline 381 or other 382.

Exemplary Agent Interfaces

FIGS. 4A-4B illustrates one embodiment of screen shots 400 and 410 ofadministration interfaces for setting up communications with customerson multiple communication channels. Referring to FIG. 4A, for oneembodiment, screen shot 400 shows an interface for an administrator forcontacts that may be provided by the company to enable incomingcommunication via an email channel. More specifically, these emails areemail addresses that the company owns and publishes on their website forpeople to contact them. For instance, a company might have an emailhelp@dogs.com, veierinarians@dogs.com, billing@dogs.com, etc. Thecompany would put those email addresses here, and connect them to Poolsas described above (see FIG. 3B) and as Mapping Rules in FIG. 11.Communications received via these email addresses can be routed to anagent, a pool of agents, or a team of agents.

For one embodiment, screen shot 400 shows a list of email entry points401 to a contact center. For example, the first entry indicates an emailto World Reservations at a contact center. A name field 402 is providedin the interface for an administrator to enter a name for the entrypoint email. The inbox 403 indicates an email for a group of agentsworking on the World Reservations Inbox and a field 404 an SLA responsetime to service the email and for the first entry an SLA response timeis 1440 minutes.

Referring to FIG. 4B, the screen shot 410 is a continuation of screenshot 400. For example, the top part of screen shot 410 continues withemail entry points with a name field, in box and SLA response time inminutes. Screen shot 410 also shows another communication channel forphone 406 that identifies the phone numbers at entry point 401 thatcustomers dial to connect with the contact center. When the contactcenter is in use, the inbox 403 includes a contact to si-voice-testautomation having an SLA wait time 1440 minutes. In this situation, anagent may override all other contacts and may end up using a contactspecified here because of the long wait time. Alternatively, corecontact 104 routing may ignore long wait times if the customer from theincoming contact at entry point +11234567891 is a Premium customer andthe contact center services Premium customers with the highest priority.

Exemplary Interfaces for Adjusting Rules and Criteria for ContactRouting

FIG. 5 illustrates one embodiment of a screen shot 500 of rules orcriteria for matching customers to agents. For this example, aninterface allows a Boolean representation to be created, modified oradjusted and allows the rules or criteria to be extensible. The exampleBoolean representation 501 is shown as, e.g., for a rule or criteriawhen an Email is received for a new an ongoing conversation AND meetsall the conditions of:

-   -   Email is from johndoe@anyemail.com    -   AND    -   Email subject contains Sam.

For this interface an “Add” function is provided such that a user oragent or administrator can add new rules. The Boolean representation canalso be modified or adjusted. In this example, if the rule or criteriais met, then there are options for the actions that should be taken 502.For example, Topics can be added, was conversation negative, sendAuto-reply, choose an answer or select other options.

FIG. 6 illustrates another embodiment of a screen shot 600 of aninterface after a rules or criteria match. This interface is for agentJane Doe to help customer Company. Once a rule or criteria has been met,e.g., as shown in FIG. 5, the interface as shown in FIG. 6 can beprovided to an agent. For example, the agent matched is identified asJane Doe. For this customer, in the conversations window 603, there havebeen previous conversations on May 2, 21 and 28 with the agent Jane Doe.Windows 605 and 606 shows the previous conversations with Jane Doe withthe customer.

Data Processing System or Computing System Architecture

FIG. 7 illustrates one embodiment of a block diagram of a dataprocessing system or computing system architecture 700 to implement theflexible and extensible contact routing techniques disclosed herein. Thedata processing system 700 can represent the various components forcontact center data processing system 102 disclosed in FIG. 1A. AlthoughFIG. 7 illustrates various components of a data processing system, thecomponents are not intended to represent any particular architecture ormanner of interconnecting the components, as such details are notgermane to the disclosed examples or embodiments. Network computers andother data processing systems or other consumer electronic devices,which have fewer components or perhaps more components, may also be usedwith the disclosed examples and embodiments.

Referring to FIG. 7, data processing system 700, which is a form of acomputing system, includes a bus 701, which is coupled to processor(s)702 coupled to cache 704, display controller 714 coupled to a display715, network interface 717, non-volatile storage 706, memory controller708 coupled to memory 710, I/O controller 718 coupled to I/O devices720, and database 712. Processor(s) 702 can include one or more centralprocessing units (CPUs), graphical processing units (GPUs), aspecialized processor or any combination thereof. Processor(s) 702 canretrieve instructions from any of the memories including non-volatilestorage 706, memory 710, or database 712, and execute the instructionsto perform operations described in FIGS. 1A-6. Database 712 can alsorepresent a routing database 104 and processor(s) 802 can implement corerouting module 103 shown in FIG. 1A.

Examples of I/O devices 720 include mice, keyboards, printers and otherlike devices controlled by I/O controller 718. Network interface 717 caninclude modems, wired and wireless transceivers and communicate usingany type of networking protocol including wired or wireless WAN and LANprotocols including LTE and Bluetooth interface and an API interface tocommunicate with Bluetooth devices. Data processing system 700 can alsoinclude a Bluetooth interface 721 that provide Bluetooth communicationwith Bluetooth devices. Memory 710 can be any type of memory includingrandom access memory (RAM), dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), whichrequires power continually in order to refresh or maintain the data inthe memory. Non-volatile storage 706 can be a mass storage deviceincluding a magnetic hard drive or a magnetic optical drive or anoptical drive or a digital video disc (DVD) RAM or a flash memory orother types of memory systems, which maintain data (e.g. large amountsof data) even after power is removed from the system.

For one example, memory devices 710 or database 712 can store customerattributes, agent attributes and Boolean representations for flexibleand extensible contact routing. Although memory devices 710 and database712 are shown coupled to system bus 701, processor(s) 702 can be coupledto any number of external memory devices or databases locally orremotely by way of network interface 717 or Bluetooth interface 721,e.g., database 712 can be secured storage in a cloud environment.

Embodiments and examples disclosed herein can be embodied in a dataprocessing system architecture, data processing system or computingsystem, or a computer-readable medium or computer program product.Aspects, features, and details of the disclosed examples and embodimentscan take the hardware or software or a combination of both, which can bereferred to as a system or engine. The disclosed examples andembodiments can also be embodied in the form of a computer programproduct including one or more computer readable mediums having computerreadable code which can be executed by one or more processors (e.g.,processor(s) 702) to implement the techniques and operations disclosedherein for a flexible and extensible contact center routing.

Exemplary Contact Center Routing Operations

FIGS. 8-10 illustrate exemplary embodiments of operations 800, 900 and1000 for routing incoming communications or contacts at a contactcenter. The following operations can be implemented by the contactcenter data processing system 100 of FIG. 1A in the contact centerecosystem 300 of FIGS. 3A-3C. Operations 800, 900 and 1000 can beimplemented according to the contact routing techniques described inFIGS. 1A-7.

FIG. 8, illustrates one embodiment of a flow diagram of operation 800for routing work or inbound communications or tasks at a contact center.Operation 800 includes operation blocks 802 to 806.

At operation block 802, an incoming communication is received at acontact center from a customer.

At operation block 804, a pairing score is determined based onattributes, guidelines, criteria or Boolean representations.

At operation block 806, an agent is selected with the highest pairingscore with the customer. After selection of the agent, the contactcenter routes the incoming communication or the work to the selectedagent.

FIG. 9 illustrates another embodiment of a flow diagram of operation 900for routing work or incoming communications or tasks at a contactcenter. Operation 900 includes operation blocks 902 to 908.

At operation block 902, attributes, guidelines, criteria or Booleanrepresentations are adjusted or extended.

At operation block 904, an incoming communication is received at acontact center from a customer.

At operation block 906, a pairing score is determined based on adjustedor extended attributes, guidelines, criteria, or Booleanrepresentations.

At operation block 908, an agent is selected with the highest pairingscore with the customer. After selection of the agent, the contactcenter routes the incoming communication or the work to the selectedagent.

For the above example operations 800 and 900, routing can occur onlywhen a new communication is initiated from a customer, and need notoccur for each communication sent by a customer. For example, if acustomer sends a SMS communication, the session can be routed to anagent using the disclosed routing techniques. If the customer sendssuccessive SMS communications, the communication can go directly to thesame agent servicing the customer without having to go through the aboverouting process.

FIG. 10 illustrates one embodiment of a flow diagram of operation 1000for changing communication channels at a contact center. Operation 1000includes operation blocks 1002 to 1005.

At operation block 1002, a determination is made if there is a need tochange communication channels.

At operation block 1003, if the determination is Y, the currentcommunication channel is changed to another communication channel andcontinues to block 1005 to continue service with a customer.

At operation 1004, if the determination is N, there is no change and theagent stays on the current communication channel and continues to block1005 to continue service with a customer.

Additional Routing Interface Examples

FIGS. 11-13 show additional routing interface examples for the routingtechniques disclosed herein. Referring to FIG. 11, an administrationinterface 1100 is shown for providing mapping rules and scoring criteriaaccording to one embodiment. Interface 1100 includes mapping rules 1102which can identify parameters to define mapping rules 102. In thisexample, there are parameters for dogwalking and vet advice. Interface1100 includes scoring criteria 1104 to assist in determining scoring.Parameters such as long wait on phone or messaging can be classified as“High,” which can be provided with a higher score in determining a pairscoring between an agent and customer. Referring to FIG. 12, aninterface 1200 for providing scoring criteria is shown for an exemplaryaccount according to one embodiment. Interface 1200 includes scoringcriteria 1202 that provides a window 1204 for Vet advice having Booleaninputs on how to classify parameters to determine scoring. A section forpreview 1206 is also shown. Referring to FIG. 13, an agent interface1300 is shown according to one embodiment. Interface 1300 includescontact 1302, conversation 1304, and relationships sections 1305 for anagent to interface with customers.

In the foregoing specification, the invention has been described withreference to specific exemplary embodiments thereof. It will, however,be evident that various modifications and changes may be made theretowithout departing from the broader spirit and scope of disclosedembodiments. The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to beregarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for a contact center, performed by acommunication routing system, comprising: creating, modifying, adjustingor extending, by one or more agents or administrators of the contactcenter, one or more customer attributes, agent attributes, rules orcriteria for determining pairing scores and routing incomingcommunications from customers to agents, to customize the communicationrouting system to the contact center; receiving incoming communicationsfrom one or more customers; determining a pairing score for each agentselectable for servicing the incoming communications with each of theone or more customers based on characteristics of the incomingcommunications and on the adjustable and extensible customer attributes,agent attributes, rules and criteria; and routing an incomingcommunication from a customer to an agent based on such pairing scores,including at least one pairing score that is determined after receivingthe incoming communication from the customer based on data about thecustomer and the agent known prior to the incoming communication anddata about each of the customer and the agent determined in real-timeafter the incoming communication occurs.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein determining the pairing score includes determining the pairingscore using one or more guidelines or Boolean representations.
 3. Themethod of claim 2, wherein the guidelines or Boolean representations areflexible and extensible.
 4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:adjusting or extending the guidelines or Boolean representations.
 5. Themethod of claim 4, further comprising: determining a new pairing scorefor each agent capable of servicing the incoming communications for eachof the one or more customers based on the adjusted or extended customerattributes and/or agent attributes, guidelines, criteria or Booleanrepresentations.
 6. The method of claim 1, further comprising: routingthe incoming communication on one or more communication channels.
 7. Themethod of claim 6, wherein the one or more communication channelsinclude a short message service (SMS) message channel, text messagechannel, telephone contact channel, cell phone channel, email channel,social media channel, messenger channel, voicemail channel, phonecallback channel, fax channel, or chat channel.
 8. The method of claim7, further comprising: switching over the routed incoming communicationon a first communication channel to a second communication channel. 9.The method of claim 8, wherein the second communication channel is adifferent type of channel from the first communication channel.
 10. Adata processing system for a contact center comprising: a routingdatabase storing one or more customer attributes and agent attributes;and a core routing module coupled to the routing database and configuredto create, modify, adjust or extend, directed by one or more agents oradministrators of the contact center, one or more customer attributes,agent attributes, rules or criteria for determining pairing scores androuting incoming communications from customers to agents, to customizethe communication routing system to the contact center; receive incomingcommunications from one or more customers to be serviced by one or moreagents; determine a pairing score for each agent selectable forservicing the incoming communications with each of the one or morecustomers based on characteristics of the incoming communications and onthe adjustable and extensible customer attributes, agent attributes,rules and criteria; and route an incoming communication from a customerto an agent having a pairing score with the customer, based on pairingscores, including the pairing score with the customer, determined afterreceiving the incoming communication from the customer based on dataabout the customer and the agent known prior to the incomingcommunication and data about each of the customer and the agentdetermined in real-time after the incoming communication occurs.
 11. Thedata processing system of claim 10, wherein the core routing module isfurther configured to determine the pairing score using one or moreguidelines or Boolean representations that are flexible and extensible.12. The data processing system of claim 11, wherein the core routingmodule is further configured to adjust or extend the guidelines orBoolean representations.
 13. The data processing system of claim 12,wherein the core routing module is further configured to determine a newpairing score for each agent capable of servicing the incomingcommunications for each of the one or more customers based on theadjusted or extended customer and agent attributes, guidelines, criteriaor Boolean representation.
 14. The data processing system of claim 10,further comprising: one or more communication channels coupled to theone or more customers and one or more agents.
 15. The data processingsystem of claim 14, wherein the one or more communication channelsinclude a short message service (SMS) message channel, text messagechannel, telephone contact channel, cell phone channel, email channel,social media channel, messenger channel, voicemail channel, phonecallback channel, fax channel, or chat channel.
 16. The data processingsystem 15, wherein the core routing module is further configured toroute the incoming communication on a first communication channel. 17.The data processing system of claim 16, wherein the core routing moduleis further configured to switch routing of the incoming communication onthe first channel to a second channel, wherein the second communicationchannel is a different type of channel than the first communicationchannel.
 18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium containinginstructions, which if executed by a data processing system, cause thedata processing system to implement an operation comprising: creating,modifying, adjusting or extending, by one or more agents oradministrators of a contact center, one or more customer attributes,agent attributes, rules or criteria for determining pairing scores androuting incoming communications from customers to agents, to customizethe data processing system as a communication routing system to thecontact center; receiving incoming communication from one or morecustomers; determining a pairing score for each agent selectable forservicing the incoming communication for each of the one or morecustomers based on characteristics of the incoming communications and onthe adjustable and extensible customer attributes, agent attributes,rules and criteria; and routing an incoming communication from acustomer to an agent having a highest pairing score with the customer,wherein the highest pairing score is determined after receiving theincoming communication from the customer based on data about thecustomer and the agent known prior to the incoming communication anddata about each of the customer and the agent determined in real-timeafter the incoming communication occurs.
 19. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 18, wherein the operation furthercomprises: adjusting or extending criteria or Boolean representations,on which the pairing scores are further based.
 20. The non-transitorycomputer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein the operation furthercomprises: determining a new pairing score based on the adjusted orextended customer and agent attributes, guidelines, criteria or Booleanrepresentations.
 21. A method for a contact center, performed by aprocessing system, comprising: creating, modifying, adjusting orextending, by one or more agents or administrators of the contactcenter, one or more customer attributes, agent attributes, rules orcriteria for determining pairing scores and routing incomingcommunications from customers to agents, to customize the processingsystem as a communication routing system to the contact center;determining a pairing score for each agent selectable for servicingincoming communications with each of the one or more customers based oncharacteristics of the incoming communications and on the adjustable andextensible customer attributes, agent attributes, rules and criteria;and routing an incoming communication from a customer or work to anagent based on a pairing score that is determined after receiving theincoming communication based on data about the customer or work and theagent known prior to the incoming communication and data about thecustomer or work and data about the agent determined in real-time afterthe incoming communication occurs.
 22. The method of claim 21, whereindetermining the pairing score includes determining the pairing scoreusing one or more guidelines or Boolean representations.
 23. The methodof claim 22, wherein the guidelines or Boolean representations areflexible and extensible.
 24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:adjusting or extending the guidelines or Boolean representations.